Bernstein analyst A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi, Jr believes that Apple's Q3 results could miss expectations by a significant amount due to delays in the launch of the company's new iPhone. However, he says that a large Q3 miss won;t matter unless the new iPhone is delayed past early November. In such a scenario, more people could abandon iPhone, "undermining" the company's fiscal 2018 results, he stated. Nonetheless, the analyst says that investors should buy Apple on any weakness after its Q3 results. Noting that "the iPhone's installed base will be 75% larger entering the iPhone 8 cycle than it was entering the strong iPhone 6 cycle," the analyst says this statistic suggests that the company is poised for strong growth. He raised his price target on the shares to $170 from $160 and keeps an Outperform rating.

Apple saw sales of its iPhones fall 19.1% in the first three months of the year, CNBC's Ryan Browne reports, citing data from Counterpoint Research. Meanwhile, Huawei saw a 69.7% surge in smartphone sales in the country during the same period, Counterpoint said. Reference Link